Chilli was not ready to let her romance with Usher burn.
The TLC singer recently shared that she and the “Confessions” crooner stayed in contact up until 2019 — despite ending their highly publicized romance 15 years before.
“I love hard,” the 52-year-old — whose real name is Rozonda Thomas — told People Thursday. “I was like, ‘God, why can’t I get over this?’ He couldn’t either.”
Chilli said that she finally cut her ex off “to focus on myself.”
“I even stopped dating,” she added. “Because before that I thought if I met the right guy during that time that I wasn’t over [Usher] it wouldn’t work. I would never want to straddle the fence.”
The “Scrubs” singer told the outlet that she and Usher, 44, were on and off for years and would reconnect when they weren’t in other relationships.
However, the “Confessions” singer was married to Tameka Foster from 2007 to 2009 and to Grace Harry from 2015 to 2018, which was one year before Chilli and Usher ended communication with each other.
Chili and Usher began dating in 2001 and called it quits three years later.
That same year, Usher released his critically acclaimed album “Confessions,” which many fans believed to be about his infidelity during his romance with Chilli.
The “Red Light Special” singer clarified in a 2013 interview with Us Weekly that Usher did not cheat on her.
“We were together when he recorded that album. All of those songs on ‘Confessions,’ that was about Jermaine Dupri’s situation. Usher was just singing it. But people kind of bought into it, it was just the timing of our breakup when the album came out,” she explained.
Chilli noted that they broke up “because it was that time,” adding that Usher “was that real love for me.”
Chilli has now found love again, as she is currently dating “Boy Meets World” alum Matthew Lawrence.
The four-time Grammy winner gushed over her new romance with Lawrence, 43, telling Pvnew in April that he “has changed everything, the way I look at relationships. It’s so different.”
Meanwhile, Usher is currently dating Jennifer Goicoechea and they share two children together: daughter Sovereign, 2, and son Sire, 1. He is also a dad to sons Usher “Cinco” V, 15, and Naviyd Ely, 14, with Foster.
